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Push these over, say rangers at Yosemite National Park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

Have you ever passed by a rock cairn and felt the urge to knock it over? Well, officials with Yosemite National Park strongly advise that you do.Rock cairns are man-made piles of rock stacked on top of each other. According to park rangers, Leave No Trace ethics states that when recreating in wilderness spaces, the goal is to leave no signs of human impact on the land so as to respect the other creatures living in it.And while the effort and aesthetics of these rock cairns may seem too precious to ruin, oversized cairns are a mark of human impact and are distracting in a wilderness setting. Officials also say building them disturbs small insects, reptiles, and microorganisms that live on the underside of these rocks.In general, park rangers say rock cairns should only be built by trail workers and are meant for navigation, safety, and delineating new or hard-to-follow trails.Yosemite National Park advises visitors to dismantle and refrain from building rock cairns when visiting the ...

Heat: 3 in 4 Californians say climate change is contributing to the state’s extreme weather events

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

With a heat wave approaching that could send inland temperatures soaring this weekend to more than 105 degrees, a new poll shows Californians’ concerns are rising about climate change and its connections to extreme weather.Overall, 77% of California adults and 76% of likely voters say climate change has contributed to the state’s recent extreme weather events — which include severe droughts, record heat waves, wildfires and destructive winter storms — according to a survey released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California, a non-partisan research organization in San Francisco.Support is lukewarm — just 45% — for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ban on the sale of new gasoline-burning cars statewide by 2035. But roughly 7 in 10 Californians support building offshore wind farms and desalination plants along the state’s coastline, and taking further steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including supporting an existing law that requires 10...

Today in History: July 13, George Zimmerman acquitted in Trayvon Martin killing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

Today in History Today is Thursday, July 13, the 194th day of 2023. There are 171 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On July 13, 1960, John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination on the first ballot at his party’s convention in Los Angeles.On this date: In 1863, deadly rioting against the Civil War military draft erupted in New York City. (The insurrection was put down three days later.) In 1923, a sign consisting of 50-foot-tall letters spelling out “HOLLYWOODLAND” was dedicated in the Hollywood Hills to promote a subdivision (the last four letters were removed in 1949).In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to be U.S. Solicitor General; Marshall became the first Black jurist appointed to the post. (Two years later, Johnson nominated Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.) In 1973, former presidential aide Alexander P. Butterfield revealed to Senate Watergate Committee staff members the existence of President Richard Nixon’s s...

Pasan a la final: Panamá derrota a EEUU en los penaltis de la Copa Oro

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

REDACCIÓN DEPORTES – Panamá derrotó este miércoles en los penaltis a Estados Unidos (1-1, 4-5 en la tanda) y, tras eliminar al vigente campeón, jugará la final de este torneo el domingo en Los Ángeles (EEUU).Esta será la tercera final de la Copa Oro para Panamá, que en las dos anteriores ocasiones (2005 y 2013) no pudo conseguir el título.La selección panameña, con el portero Orlando Mosquera como héroe en la tanda con dos penaltis atajados, se enfrentará en la final al vencedor de la otra semifinal entre México y Jamaica. Sorpresiva victoria: Catar derrota a México en la última jornada de la Copa Oro Conoce las ciudades donde se jugará la Copa Oro de la Concacaf 2023 EEUU venía de otro agotador partido en cuartos contra Canadá que también acabó en los penaltis, pero esta vez la moneda cayó de cruz para el combinado de barras y estrellas.Adalberto Carrasquilla, el mejor de Panamá a lo largo de este intenso y muy emocionante ...

Gazdag’s two PK goals spark Union to 2-0 win over Nashville

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Dániel Gazdag scored on a penalty kick in each half and the Philadelphia Union beat Nashville SC 2-0 on Wednesday night in a match that saw three players exit in the second half due to red cardsGazdag gave the Union (11-7-4) a 1-0 lead in the 40th minute after a foul by Nashville’s Daniel Lovitz. He added an insurance goal in the 84th minute after a second yellow card on Lovitz — forcing Nashville (11-7-5) to play a man down. Gazdag has nine goals and nine assists this season.Nashville’s Shaq Moore and Philadelphia’s Julián Carranza both received red cards in the fifth minute of stoppage time for violent conduct.Joe Bendik did not have to make a save to earn the clean sheet for the Union. Joe Willis stopped three shots for Nashville. The Union snap a two-match losing streak with their first shutout since a 3-0 victory over CF Montreal to begin June.The Union pulled to within a point of third-place Nashville in the Eastern Conference with the...

Google set to roll out AI chatbot Bard in EU

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

Google is set to roll out its artificial intelligence chatbot Bard in European Union Thursday after resolving concerns raised by the Irish Data Protection Commission, the regulator told POLITICO.“Google have made a number of changes in advance of [the] launch, in particular increased transparency and changes to controls for users,” the Irish regulator’s deputy commissioner and spokesperson Graham Doyle said in a statement.The U.S. technology giant in June delayed the release of its competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT after the Irish regulator said the company had given insufficient information about how its tool respected the EU’s privacy rules, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Irish watchdog is Google’s main data regulator in the EU because the U.S. firm has its European headquarters there. “We will be continuing our engagement with Google in relation to Bard post-launch and Google have agreed to carrying out a review and provid...

China exports slumped 12.4% in June from a year earlier as global demand weakened

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s exports tumbled 12.4% in June from a year earlier as demand weakened after central banks raised interest rates to curb inflation even as Chinese leaders struggled to keep a post-COVID recovery from faltering.Customs data released Thursday showed imports slid 6.8% to $214.7 billion. Exports edged up slightly from the month before, totaling $285.3 billion. The trade surplus was $70.2 billion, rising from $65.8 billion in May. Trade weakness adds to downward pressure on the world’s second-largest economy. Global consumer demand has weakened after the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia raised interest rates to bring inflation down from near multi-decade highs by reining in business and consumer activity. In January-June, China’s total trade including imports and exports fell nearly 5% from a year earlier. Exports slipped 3.2% and imports declined 6.7% as prices of commodities like oil fell and demand inside China also faltered. Exports to...

Pilot says he escaped serious injury by jumping into the ocean when a New Zealand volcano erupted

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A helicopter pilot said in court on Thursday he and two of his passengers had escaped serious injury by jumping into the ocean when a New Zealand volcano erupted in 2019, killing 22.Another two of pilot Brian Depauw’s joy flight passengers did not make it to the water, were engulfed by a cloud of hot ash from the White Island eruption, and suffered serious burns.Belgian-born Depauw, who speaks with an Irish accent, testified at the Auckland District Court on Thursday in the trial of three tourism companies and three directors charged with safety breaches over the Dec. 9 disaster.“The water is what saved us,” Depauw told the court.Depauw and his four German passengers were among 47 people on White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Indigenous Maori name, Whakaari, when superheated gases erupted. Most of the 25 survivors were severely burned.Depauw, who currently lives in Canada, said he had only been working for tour operator Volcanic ...

Homeless World Cup makes US debut in California and scores victories beyond the field for players

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Lisa Wrightsman was a former college soccer player whose life was derailed by drug addiction before she eventually made her way back to the sport through a tournament for players from around the globe who have experienced homelessness. Wrightsman qualified for the Homeless World Cup in Brazil. It was a competition that would forever change her life. When she returned to Sacramento, friends at the sober living facility where Wrightsman lived told her they wanted “to feel the way you look right now.”“I actually started to feel value,” she said. “The whole tournament kind of instills you with that.”Wrightsman is now a coach for the U.S. women’s team in the Homeless World Cup. The tournament made its U.S. debut July 8 in the capital of California, a state home to the largest homeless population in the country. It runs through Saturday.The tournament is being held after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, when homeless populations surged in many U.S. ...

3 soldiers, 2 insurgents killed in shootout in southwest Pakistan, officials say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:15:00 GMT

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Assailants attacked Pakistani soldiers conducting an operation in a restive southwestern province, and three of the soldiers and two insurgents were killed, local officials and the military said Thursday.The military said in a statement the shootout happened Wednesday in the Baluchistan district of Sui, where the country’s main pipelines of natural gas are located. It was unclear who was behind the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on local separatist groups who have been blamed for previous such attacks.Local officials said an operation to arrest those insurgents who fled after the shootout was underway. The violence in Sui came hours after five militants attacked a security post in Zhob district in Baluchistan, killing nine soldiers. The military said those five attackers were killed.Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by small separatist groups for more than two decades. Baluch nationalists initially wanted a share of the provinc...